This website is designed to help you find everything you need to know about running a successful business when you have ADHD.

It’s likely you’re different

If you are reading this, it’s highly likely you are creative, fun, passionate, and a “think-outside-the-box” type of person—and you might not be ready to embrace all of those qualities in yourself yet, because your self esteem may be a little low.

You started your own business because working for someone else may have been agony. You’re really good at what you do, but working in a cubicle, coming and going by someone else’s idea of working hours, and taking direction based on outdated ideas or when you know a better way, just doesn’t work for you. And despite your many creative strengths, you also face many challenges—and these are the things that are holding you and your business back.

We have also interviewed ADHD experts and successful business owners with ADHD, including the adventures of hilarious Hollywood writer Frank South; ADHD coaching pioneer Nancy Ratey, who talks about taking control of your disorganized mind; psychologist and specialist in ADHD Dr. Ari Tuckman, about why you don’t do what you know you should do; ADHD learning expert Peter Riddle about teaching your brain to focus; and Yale University psychologist and ADHD specialist and author, Dr. Thomas E. Brown, about why you can focus so well on one thing but not on others.

Being organized and in control of your projects helps you be productive and keep customers and clients happy. Want to know what the best project management tool is when you have ADHD?

You might be surprised when you hear what it is. In fact some people don’t believe it will help them because their business seems too complex for such a simple solution. However, those same people are raving about it after they have tried it!

The biggest myth in time management

The article goes on to say, “Once we admit that we aren’t going to get it all done, we’re in a much better position to make explicit choices about what we are going to do. Instead of letting things haphazardly fall through the cracks, we can intentionally push the unimportant things aside and focus our energy on the things that matter most (emphasis mine).”

We think we can do the little things first

See, when you think you’ll be able to get it all done, you do the little things first, to get them out of the way. Pretty soon you’ve run out of time and haven’t done a thing to further your big objectives—right?

In his new book, “Driven to Distraction At Work.” Dr. Edward Hallowell talks about “screen sucking”. It’s a term to describe how the screens of our electronic devices suck away our time and creativeness.

Technology is a wonderful thing, Almost everything can be done on the screen these days, from running a business to grocery shopping and dating. However, as with most things, there is a fine line between being useful and being a problem. The screen pulls our attention from what is happening around us, and takes us into another world. With computers, iPads and smartphones, we are never away from a screen.

The constant use of electronics is often thought of as a joke. However, for some people it can be a serious problem, in the form of an addiction. We are aware it’s possible be addicted to something that is available via the internet. For example, online gambling, porn, or shopping. However, the internet itself, with “regular” websites, can also be addictive. As Dr. Hallowell explains, some people can get addicted to the feeling of being online.

The good news is that most of us who experience screen sucking don’t develop an addiction. However, spending too much time behind your computer or cell phone can still be a problem. It can affect your relationships, sleep and productivity, and so much more.

As an ADHD entrepreneur, you might not notice you have a screen sucking habit. As a business owner [Read more...]

One of the biggest challenges you face as a business owner—especially when you have ADHD—is spending your time well. Time is a non-renewable resource: once you use it up, it’s gone.

This is a big problem, because how you spend that time definitely impacts the success of your business and how much money you make. It can also make you feel awful if you aren’t productive.

This isn’t news—you know this. Then how come you spend so much time getting off course and doing stupid stuff? I do it too, we all do. We start our weeks and days with good intentions and then somehow get off course . . .

. . . and things don’t get done.

Maybe you, like a lot of entrepreneurs, need a good way to wake yourself up and get back to what you should be doing—things that will help move your business along.

Here are three steps you can take to help you STOP when you get off track and start doing stupid stuff.

Take these steps to stop doing stupid things when you should be working

Step 1.

Put a big note where you’ll see it throughout the day. It can say, “Pay attention,” or “Why are you doing that?” or “Hey! Get back to work!” or whatever you think will wake you up and get you out of that bright-shiny-object daze whenever you start to drift. For years I had a “Pay attention!” sticky note on my monitor, until it got to be part of my environment and I didn’t see it anymore—that’s when it’s [Read more...]

A few years ago I did this crazy obstacle race. It was over 12k through mud and icy water, under barbed wire, and over fire. It’s called a Spartan Race. It was the hardest physical thing I have ever done, however, after I had finished, I felt like I could do anything. At the start of 2015, the Spartan peeps started a podcast called Spartan Up. They interview successful people about their secrets to success. I was very excited when they interviewed ADHD Entrepreneur Richard Branson.

In this interview, Sir Richard Branson talks about many things including how Virgin Airlines started, how he makes his daily exercise fun, and why he doesn’t eat sugar.

However, the thing that struck me the most about this interview was how forgiving of himself and others he is. He doesn’t judge. He is very supportive and encouraging. He pushes himself out of his comfort zone to try new things and start businesses. However, if something doesn’t go as he planned he doesn’t beat himself up.

When he was traveling around the world in his hot air balloon he had to be rescued 5 times from the water by a helicopter. While relaying this story, he was laughing. He said he got huge satisfaction from the adventure and wasn’t disappointed that he didn’t get into the Guinness World Records. Instead he talked about [Read more...]

Do your clients truly value your work, allowing you to charge what you’re worth, and trusting you to do more for them?

You may think you’re describing your work’s true value in conversations with clients and prospective clients, when you’re really not. Your clients may not be getting it.

If you’re not able to charge what you’d like to, it may be because you’re not communicating well enough — and if that’s the case, you can’t blame them for not knowing.

It’s not your clients, it’s you

This takes digging and thinking and putting some meat on the bones of how you talk to clients. It may be more you, than them.

Take a look at these five ways you may be talking about your work that confuse clients and stop them from seeing how valuable you are:

1.) You may be doing work you don’t believe in

If you’re not well placed in your work or if you’ve chosen the wrong niche — if you really want to be a dog trainer instead of the copywriter you are (but you became a copywriter because it seemed more sensible, or your parents wanted you to be a copywriter) — it’s going to show in your work. It’s going to show in the way to talk about how you serve your clients. And it’s not going to sound as good to prospective clients as it does when they’re talking to someone who really really believes in the importance of their work as a copywriter.

You’ve got to be passionate, and sound passionate, about what you do in order to interest people in working with you — you’ve got to be so passionate that they can’t help but see the value in it. If you can’t be passionate about your work, find a way to be passionate about the way you deliver it.

Or do something else.

2.) You may be offering what you think your clients need, instead of what they actually want

People value what they want, not what you think they need — it’s that simple. The first rule of marketing success is [Read more...]

The start of every year is a great time to make business goals. 12 months ago, in January 2014, Marcia and I decided we wanted write more articles for Working with ADHD on topics that would be most helpful to you. We mapped out an editorial calendar and each month we both wrote an article.

One year later, we thought it would be fun to look back and see which articles were the most popular. Here is a roundup of the Top 5!

Do you feel some activities in your business life take you much longer than they take other people?

You aren’t alone. Many ADDers feel like this. Its frustrating, and makes you feel resentful and bad about yourself.

The most common things that take a long time are tasks like writing a report for a client, writing longer, more detailed emails, spreadsheets, etc.—they usually involve attention to detail. Depending on your business, it may be slightly different for you.

This article explains why this is and what you can do to help yourself. Read it here.

As a business owner with ADHD, you probably don’t like systems. You think systems may stifle your creativity. Or you think they’re too difficult to set up. Or you’ll never follow them. But if [Read more...]

As a business owner with ADHD, you probably don’t like systems. You think systems may stifle your creativity. Or you think they’re too difficult to set up. Or you’ll never follow them. But I urge you to give systems a second look—if you want your business to be successful.

With structure comes freedom

If you know me at all or have worked with me, you know that one of my favorite sayings is “with structure comes freedom.” Many of the people I talk to want it the other way around. They want the freedom to work on things without the structure. They want to work “when they feel creative,” because they didn’t start their business to become a slave to time or schedules. You may feel this way too. I guess that’s okay if your business isn’t serious and you don’t want to make money.

The purpose of a business is to make a profit

I’m going to be hard on you here for a minute. The definition of a business is “the purchase and sale of goods and services in an attempt to make a profit,” so obviously money is a big part of it. And you can’t make money if you don’t have reliable systems with which to do so. Really, you can be creative just to be creative in your free time. During business time, you have to set up structures to be productive.

Systems give focus, comfort, and confidence

You may say it’s boring to work by a system, and as an ADHDer, you don’t work well with boredom. That’s true about the boredom part. But my experience with ADHDers is that without systems, ADHDers lose focus. Without systems, you miss a wonderful [Read more...]

**Jacqui is on holiday this week, so we’re re-running an older article we think you’ll enjoy. Use this strategy and let us know how it works for you!

Do you feel you never get to do the important things in your business? That you are waiting for the day (that never comes) when you will have some spare time to get those important things done? You aren’t alone, we hear this from many of our ADHD entrepreneur clients.

Because the day when you will get a chunk of free time is so elusive, this productivity tip from Brian Tracy’s book, Eat That Frog,is very powerful.

Mark Twain said, if you eat a frog for breakfast, the rest of the day will be easy, as you have already done the worst thing!

The image of the frog makes it more powerful

Many productivity books suggest doing the task you least want to, first. However, having the image of a frog makes it much more powerful. ADHDers are very visual, so it’s a fun strategy to think what your ‘frog’ is each morning.

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